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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28294773">Christmas Across the Stars</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cozy_The_Overlord/pseuds/Cozy_The_Overlord'>Cozy_The_Overlord</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Loki - Fandom, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Christmas Fluff, Christmas Tree, Comfort, F/M, Fluff, Homesickness, Pre-Relationship</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-11 00:34:53</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,927</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28294773</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cozy_The_Overlord/pseuds/Cozy_The_Overlord</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A backlogged mission on Jotunheim means Piper's going to miss Christmas with her family this year. At least she's not completely alone.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Written for @the-emo-asgardian's 'Tis The Season Writing Challenge on Tumblr with the prompt "snowed in and unable to get to family"</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Loki &amp; OFC, Loki/OFC, Loki/Original Femal Character, loki &amp; original female character</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>18</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Christmas Across the Stars</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>*wipes sweat off brow* whew! For a while I wasn't sure if I was going to get this done in time for Christmas. But here it is! I've been writing a lot of angst lately, so it was really nice to write something sweet and fluffy for a change. I did try to keep Piper somewhat vague as a character, but there's a lot of me/my family traditions in this story, so for that reason I decided to make it an OFC rather than a reader-insert. Hope you don't mind.</p>
<p>Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you and your families, and I hope you all have a healthy and fulfilling New Year! Thanks for reading! :)</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>She had been staring at the stone ceiling for nearly three hours when Piper decided enough was enough. Abandoning the thick, itchy blankets and the naïve dream of getting some sleep tonight, she reached for her boots.</p>
<p>One of the annoying things about life on Jotunheim (and there were many) was the inability to do a damn thing without first putting on fifty layers. Her nylon jacket rustled as she pulled it over her arms, zipping up with an obnoxious squeak. Across the room, Olsen popped up in her bunk.</p>
<p>“<em>Wuzgoinon</em>?” she muttered, opening a bleary eye.</p>
<p>“Nothing,” Piper said quickly. “I’m just going for a walk. Go back to sleep.”</p>
<p>Olsen hummed, head dropping back to the pillow. Her other two companions didn’t stir. Piper sighed and grabbed her scarf and hat.</p>
<p>Her footsteps echoed against the rocky walls as she made her way to the bunker entrance. They weren’t supposed to go outside alone, what with being stationed on an unpredictable alien planet and all, but the blizzard that had been raging on for the past two weeks had finally seemed to pass and Piper could use a breath of fresh air.</p>
<p>The frozen hellscape greeted her with it’s usual chilly slap to the face. She coughed, bringing her scarf above her nose. When they had first arrived, the cragged mountain cliffs had hypnotized Piper. They stretched far above the horizon, their jagged silhouettes cutting through the paint-splattered sky like a crooked dagger. It was a severe kind of beauty, unlike anything Piper had ever seen before.</p>
<p>Now, it felt like the serrated ridges were laughing at her.</p>
<p>Piper sat down against the bunker door with a grunt, rubbing her hands through her mittens. What was she even doing out here? What had she expected to find? Despite her day-long daydreams, the bitter wishes she stored deep in her heart, her reality had not changed: she was a tiny ant of a person, trapped on this icy rock of a planet, sleepwalking her way through this drawn-out farce of a mission.</p>
<p>What a way to spend Christmas Eve.</p>
<p>When she had signed up for this job, it had been an adventure. Traveling across the stars to a world that until recently had only existed in myth, to test out technology that would allow for interplanetary travel? Move over, Captain Kirk. Piper Bassow was boldly going where no (human) man had gone before.</p>
<p>The mission had supposed to last for six months. They left at the beginning of February, wide-eyed and excited for the enterprise. They had planned to be home in August. Then something came up, some snag with the tech back on Earth, easily fixed but it disrupted the schedule. Their return date was moved to October. <em>No problem</em>, Piper thought. <em>We’ll still be back for the holidays.</em></p>
<p>Then, a blizzard knocked out their antenna. Again, easily fixed, but they had to wait for the wind to die down before they could risk going out to fix it. Disrupted the schedule. Now their return date was end of November.</p>
<p><em>We’re still fine,</em> she told herself. <em>Thanksgiving is a shit holiday anyways. Who cares if you miss it?</em></p>
<p>The final communication from SHIELD was what did her in. The last three months of data had gotten corrupted. They needed to stay until February. Piper had been on radio duty when she got the message. Instead of replying, she dashed the receiver against the wall.</p>
<p>It was immature. She had signed up for this mission knowing full well that there was a high chance that things wouldn’t go as planned. In fact, she should’ve been thankful—out of all the things that could have gone wrong, this was pretty innocuous. Everyone was safe, everyone was healthy, they had enough rations to last over a year. There was no reason to be this upset.</p>
<p>But … the reality that she was going to miss Christmas with her family this year was tough to grapple with. Christmas was a big deal. Her siblings and her had all long since moved out, but they still all flocked back by December the 24<sup>th</sup>, where they’d stay up all night stuffing their faces with their mother’s butter cookies and arguing over which movie to watch as the piney scent of the Christmas tree wafted through the room. No matter where they were in the world, they found a way home.</p>
<p>But Piper supposed she wasn’t anywhere in that world anymore.</p>
<p>She huffed, pulling her hands closer against her chest as the wind whistled on. Christmas had been the one thing she had been working towards all year. Feeling homesick? <em>You’ll be home with everybody for Christmas. </em>Getting frustrated with one of her teammates? <em>By Christmas you’ll have forgotten they exist.</em> Blizzard outside wrecking her day? <em>Just think of all the stories you’ll have to tell everyone over Christmas dinner.</em></p>
<p>And yet, here she was, Christmas Eve, freezing her ass outside on this godforsaken ice cube.</p>
<p>“What are you doing out here?”</p>
<p>Piper nearly jumped out of her skin. She whipped around to find their Jotun guide looming over her with a frown. Nearly a year of companionship with him had proved that Loki Laufeyson was hardly the malevolent villain the rest of her world believed him to be (SHIELD wouldn’t have put this mission in his hands if he was), but something about his presence still unsettled her. He said very little, choosing to skulk in the shadows and reappearing only when he deemed it absolutely necessary. It never failed to amaze her that a living creature could move so quietly—you never realized he was besides you until you turned around and he was there.</p>
<p>Piper tried to pull herself to her feet, but with all her extra padding she just rocked around on the ground. Her face burned.</p>
<p>Loki raised an eyebrow. “Do you need help?”</p>
<p>“I’m fine,” she huffed, crossing her arms and scowling up at him. <em>I guess I’m staying here for a bit</em>. Where had he even come from? She was leaning against the bunker door—it hadn’t opened since she’d been here. “What are <em>you</em> doing out here?” she asked accusingly.</p>
<p>Loki motioned his head towards the boulder pile behind the bunker. “We were getting some odd readings from the east. I thought I should check up on it.”</p>
<p>“Oh.” Piper peered through the ice, but she couldn’t make out the sensor that was supposed to track the movements of Jotunheim’s celestial satellites. “Is everything okay?”</p>
<p>He nodded, gaze unflinching. “I believe an animal disrupted the apparatus. I righted it.” Cocking his head, he frowned. “So is there a reason you’re sitting outside in the middle of the night in the dead of Jotun winter, or have you just finally gone mad?”</p>
<p>Piper let out a breathy laugh despite herself. She leaned her head against the stone door. “I couldn’t sleep.”</p>
<p>“Ah.” He sounded neutral enough, but Piper was fairly certain he was judging her.</p>
<p>“It’s Christmas Eve,” she added quickly. Glancing at her watch, she added, “Or Christmas Day. I’m not sure.” There was another annoyance about Jotunheim—the time difference was <em>catastrophic</em>.</p>
<p>“Oh,” Loki nodded again. He didn’t move. She frowned. What was he waiting for? Perhaps he didn’t know what she was talking about.</p>
<p>“It’s a holiday,” she explained. “On Earth. It’s kind of a big deal.”</p>
<p>“Yes, I’m aware.” For a moment, the two of them were silent, Piper staring out into the snow, Loki staring down at Piper. She waited for him to walk away, but he didn’t budge.</p>
<p>She sighed. “Do you need something?”</p>
<p>“You are upset.” He said it so matter-of-factly, as if it were plain as day. Piper’s embarrassment came flooding back.</p>
<p>“No. It’s not—” she inhaled. He was right. She was far too upset. “I just—I thought I’d be home for it.” Her eyes were burning. Piper leaned her head back against the door in frustration. Was she seriously <em>crying</em> over this?</p>
<p>“Oh.” Surely he’d leave now, now that he knew that nothing was actually wrong. She shifted to move her weight from against the door so he would be able to return inside. But to Piper’s surprise, he didn’t leave. After a moment’s hesitation, Loki sat down next to her with a grunt.</p>
<p>“I’m afraid my knowledge of Midgardian tradition is rather lacking,” he said as he made himself comfortable against the door. “Christmas is a religious holiday, yes?”</p>
<p>Piper stared. It took her a moment for her to find her voice. “Oh, um, yeah—” she stuttered. “Technically. But not everyone who celebrates it is super religious. Like, I don’t think anyone in my family has gone to church in their life.”</p>
<p>“What is it you celebrate then?” He leaned forward, seeming genuinely interested</p>
<p>“I don’t know. Family. Giving. That’s what they call it, the season of giving.” Geez, she sounded like the star in a Hallmark movie. “My family always had a big get-together every year. Or, <em>has—</em>I guess they still are this year, I’m just… not there.” Her voice trailed off pitifully. Piper forced a smile, desperate to show him that she wasn’t completely pathetic. “But it’s fun. We have cookies and chocolates and everything and we decorate the tree and give each other presents—”</p>
<p>“Pardon me,” Loki interrupted, perking up. “What do you mean ‘decorate the tree’?”</p>
<p>“Oh, yeah.” Of course he wouldn’t know what she was talking about. “It’s a Christmas thing. You get a pine tree—some people have fake ones, my family always goes to a farm to get one—and you put it in your house, and you decorate it with lights and ornaments and stuff, and then you put the presents for everyone under the tree.”</p>
<p>That was another thing she missed this year. Usually, whoever was in town with her parents for Thanksgiving would drive out with them to the Christmas tree farm the next day to help pick out a tree. That was always an adventure—her mom would be scurrying between the lines of trees as the rest of them rushed to follow her, pine needles attacking them mercilessly from both sides. Piper’s mother was a perfectionist in every aspect of life and picking out a tree was no different. They’d spend hours circling the farm, listening to her as she found a flaw in each one they came across.</p>
<p>
  <em>“The shape of this one is just too wide. Far too dry. Oh look, there’s a hole right in the middle! That one’s beautiful, but it’s so tall, I don’t think it would fit in our house—”</em>
</p>
<p>Eventually, she would find a tree that came close enough to her standards (“<em>well, this one has a bare side, but we’ll put it up against the wall so no one will see it</em>”) and Piper would crawl under the thing with the shitty saw they got at the front and go to work, her two sisters bouncing around like cheerleaders at a football game when the tree finally came crashing down.</p>
<p>Piper suddenly realized that she wasn’t going to get to see this year’s tree.</p>
<p>Besides her, Loki sounded lost in thought. “That sounds like Yule.”</p>
<p>She turned, frowning. “Yule?”</p>
<p>“An Asgardian holiday. We decorate pine trees as well.” He sighed, almost wistfully. Piper had never seen him this relaxed before. “It’s probably where the Midgardian custom comes from.”</p>
<p>“Oh, yeah.” She thought she had heard that once, that a lot of Christmas traditions had come from the Vikings, although she had never made the connection between that and Asgard. It made sense—wasn’t Loki straight out of Viking myth? “What do your tree decorations look like?”</p>
<p>Loki hummed. “We had special enchantments on the trees to create the illusion of glowing orbs of light within the branches. You couldn’t touch them—your hand would go right through.” He laughed. “It drove my brother mad when we were little. On more than one occasion he knocked down the whole damn tree trying to grab the light.”</p>
<p>Piper grinned. “That sounds like our cat! We have these little glass balls that are like, multicolored, and he’s always trying to bat them down. My mom wakes up to find ornaments all over the floor. One time he even managed to get the star” <em>That cat’s a little shit and he knows it</em>, she’d tell Piper on the phone. <em>I can’t wait til you guys get home. He’s always on his best behavior for you. </em></p>
<p>Loki was staring at her quizzically. “The star?”</p>
<p>“Yeah. You put the star at the top of the tree, and it lights up. It’s like a topper ornament. I’m not sure where that comes from.” Piper sighed. “I hope they’re able to get it all set up this year. I’m usually the one who does the lights and the star and everything.”</p>
<p>“I’m sure they’ll manage.”</p>
<p>“Yeah.” Of course they would. The idea that they couldn’t manage without her was nothing but wishful thinking on Piper’s part, a tiny, selfish little part of her that wished they were as lonely and miserable as she was. “It’s just—” she inhaled. “I’ve never missed Christmas before.” Her fingers were going numb under her mittens. She rubbed them against each other.</p>
<p>She could feel Loki’s eyes on her, studying her as she blew into her hands. He didn’t say anything for the longest time, but the silence felt more analytical than judgmental.</p>
<p>“You should go inspide,” he finally said. “It’s far too cold out here for you to just be sitting still.”</p>
<p>He was right, but still Piper bristled. “I’m fine.”</p>
<p>“Please.” He stood in one fluid motion, holding his palm out to her. “If you freeze to death out here, SHIELD will find a way to blame me for it.”</p>
<p>“I—” Her pride screamed at her to keep protesting, but the biting wind was picking up, cutting under her coat and piercing her bones. She couldn’t help the shivers, even as Loki shot her a pointed look.</p>
<p>Piper sighed. “Alright.” She took his hand (<em>how was he so warm?!</em>) and allowed him to pull her to her feet and lead her inside.</p>
<p>…</p>
<p>“Bassow! Bassow, wake up!”</p>
<p>The shouts rattled her skull as she pulled herself from deep within the recesses of sleep. “Hng?”</p>
<p>She was face down in her bunk. When had she even gone back to bed last night? She had been talking to Loki …</p>
<p>It was Medoff who was yelling her name.</p>
<p>“Come on, you’ve got to see this!” her teammate shouted in her ear as she shook her arm.</p>
<p>Piper groaned, pulling herself from the warm cocoon of blankets she had wrapped around herself at some point in the night. Her head was pounding. <em>What time is it? </em></p>
<p>“See what?” she muttered.</p>
<p>Medoff yanked her out of bed, seemingly trying to jerk her up. “You’ve just got to see it. You won’t believe it otherwise.”</p>
<p>It was too cold. Piper ripped her blanket from her mattress and followed Medoff through the bunker hallways with it wrapped around her shoulders like a cloak, head lost in a sleepy fog.</p>
<p>“Is this really that import—” she trailed off when they reached the common area. The table where they took their meals had been pushed into the corner, but that was hardly what rendered her speechless.</p>
<p>There was a tree. A great, big, beautiful evergreen tree, with needles of emerald green, more vibrant than any Piper had ever seen on Earth. Kaleidoscopic orbs floated amongst the branches, slowly shifting through the colors of the rainbow before her eyes, held to the tree by chains of silver light. And on the top … it was a star, but comparing it to the plastic things Piper would haphazardly wrestle to the top of her Midgardian Christmas trees felt like a crime. It was as if someone had plucked one of the celestial bodies from the night sky and just fixed it at the peak, sparkling so bright it was almost blinding.</p>
<p>For a moment, Piper just blinked. “What—how—”</p>
<p>“We don’t know!” Olsen laughed from the table, where she was sitting with Wynn, the final member of their team. “We just woke up a few minutes ago, and it was like this! Isn’t it insane?”</p>
<p>“I mean, it is Christmas Day,” Wynn said. “Back at home, I mean. I guess Santa made it to Jotunheim after all.”</p>
<p>“Yeah. Santa.” Coming to her senses, Piper glanced about the room. It couldn’t be a coincidence that the most enchanting Christmas tree in existence magically appeared in their bunker mere hours after that conversation. She found him lurking in the hallway, watching them all from afar. Loki met her gaze, and Piper suddenly realized his eyes were the same brilliant green as the tree.</p>
<p>The biting homesickness that had been festering in her heart was still there, but it was beginning to fade, as if someone had wrapped it in a warm blanket.  She smiled. As her colleagues continued to chatter over the tree, Piper made her way over to the Jotun prince.</p>
<p>“Thank you.”</p>
<p>He shrugged. “It was hardly an unpleasant task. I thought I might enjoy indulging nostalgia for a day as well.”</p>
<p>The changing lights from the tree cast a mystical glow to the desolate bunker, sparkling across the stone walls. It was like living within the Northern Lights. Hesitantly, Piper reached to put her hand on his forearm. “Merry Christmas, Loki.”</p>
<p>At first, he stiffened, but after a moment, he returned her warm smile. “Merry Christmas.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this story, feel free to check out my Tumblr (@cozy-the-overlord)!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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